Nozzle Design improved

. 78-Pet-51
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Can Nozzle Design be Effectively Improved for Drilling Purposes
D. A. SUMMERS
Professor, Mining Engineering-
and Director,
Rock Mechanics & Explosives Research
C. R. BARKER
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering;
and Senior Research Investigator,
Rock Mechanics & Explosives Research
Assoc. Mem. ASME
B. P. SELBERG
Associate Professor,
Aerospace Engineering
University of Missouri-Rolla
Rolla, Mo.
This paper describes continued research on the use of high pressure water jets as a means of
improving drilling rate. In order to more effectively test the effect of stress on jet drilling rate, tests
have been carried out in an underground mine. These tests have shown that stress markedly
reduces jet cutting ability in rock in situ contrast with laboratory test conditions. In order to achieve
improvement in performance, new nozzle designs have been developed which markedly increase
let performance in cutting rock in air. The potential of this development on conventional bit
performance in downhole conditions is discussed together with an initial analysis of the problems
which can be solved in fluid flow through a bit. A discussion on the relative merits of optimizing
fluid impact force as opposed to optimizing fluid velocity or bit hydraulic horsepower concludes
the paper.
Contributed by the Petroleum Division of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers for
presentation at the Energy TechnologyConference & Exhibition, Houston, Texas, November
5-9, 1978. Manuscript received at ASME Headquarters July 25, 1978.
Copies will be available until August 1, 1979.
,THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, UNITED ENGINEERING CENTER, 345 EAST 47th STREET,
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10017
Can Nozzle Design be Effectively Improved for Drilling Purposes
D. A. SUMMERS C. R. BARKER B. P. SELBERG
ABSTRACT
This paper describes continued research on the use of high pressure water jets as a means of
improving drilling rate. In order to more effectively test the effect of stress on jet drilling rate, tests
have been carried out in an underground mine. These tests have shown that stress markedly
reduces jet cutting ability in rock in situ contrast with laboratory test conditions.
In order to achieve improvement in performance, new nozzle designs have been developed
which markedly increase jet performance in cutting rock in air. The potential of this development
on conventional bit performance in downhole conditions is discussed together with an initial
analysis of the problems which can be solved in fluid flow through a bit.
A discussion on the relative merits of optimizing fluid impact force as opposed to optimizing
fluid velocity or bit hydraulic horsepower concludes the paper.
INTRODUCTION
Over the course of the past three years the University of Missouri-Rolla has been engaged in
research examining potential benefits of high pressure water jet usage in drilling rock. During this
time two separate and distinct approaches have been taken. In the first of these, water jets have
been applied by themselves as a means of drilling rock and it has been found that the water jets are
capable of drilling small diameter holes at a high penetration speed (in consequence of which two
water jet systems for drilling roof bolt holes have been funded by the U.S. Bureau of Mines). In a
more recent development of this study the University of Missouri-Rolla has, in cooperation with
the Mining Research Division of St. Joe Mineral Company, carried out a series of tests to
determine if high pressure water jets could advantageously be used for drilling larger diameter
holes for use in the emplacement of explosives in a blasting round. This combined research was of
advantage since it not only allowed a demonstration of the adaptability of water jet technology to
this size hole, but it also allowed a determination to be made of the effect of ground stress on the
drilling performance of a water jet system.
Effect of Stress on Water Jet Drilling
The proqram which was carried out at the Indian Creek Mine of St. Joe Minerals involved the
replacement. of a conventional compressed air pneumatic drill with a high pressure water jet
drilling system. The drill itself consisted of a replaceable nozzle attached to the end of a 9/16 in.
(14.29 mm) diameter high pressure stainless steel tube which was rotated by a hydraulic motor
attached through a chain and sprocket system to the tubing. The nozzle cross section installed in
the stainless steel tube is shown in Figure 1. The drilling sash was further modified in that a
hydraulic motor was located underneath the sash rather than the conventional compressed air motor
in order to better control the advance rate of the unit. The system was tested in a mine in a series of
experiments which have been described in more detail elsewhere (1).
While there were many conclusions drawn from the study, two are relevant to the topic
described in this paper. One of the experiments carried out in the mine was to partially destress a
block of the sandstone in the area being mined. The holes drilled in this, essentially unstressed,
ground were compared with those made in the adjacent rock where no stress relief had taken place.
The results of this experiment (Figs. 2a and 2b) show a very marked effect of the presence of
ground stress on the drilling rate. Thus, since these results tend to confirm previous data obtained
in the laboratory on the effect of ground stress on water jet drilling, it can be anticipated that there
will be, as the water jets further penetrate the rock, an increasing effect of ground stress on drilling
rate. However, in this regard it was determined in the laboratory experiments that the effect of
ground stress is most marked in its initial application and that once a confining pressure of 500 psi
(3.5 M.Pa) or so has been applied to the rock there is very little further reduction in drilling
performance as stress continues to increase. A summary of these tests is presented in Table 1. For
this reason, therefore, it is felt that water jet drilling can still be considered a viable method of
drilling holes.
However, it must be mentioned that the problems likely to be encountered under varying
ground stress are likely to include a noncircular hole should water jets be used alone as a drilling
mechanism. This factor in conjunction with other considerations has led to the conclusion,
particularly at hole diameters larger than 2 in. (5 cm) and where water jets would be required to
drill regular circular holes, that a more advantageous use of water jets would be in cooperation
with a mechanical drilling device.
A research effort has, therefore, been undertaken whereby water jets have been combined with
mechanical tri-cone bits in order to obtain a better performance. This research program is not
unique to the University of Missouri-Rolla. Experiments have also been carried out by Gulf,
Exxon, and Shell (2,3,4) in seeking to enhance conventional drill bit performance by adding
waterjets to the system. An examination of the results of these trials indicates that substantial
advantages can be achieved by adding water jets to tri-cone bits.
In research at the University of Missouri-Rolla, a much smaller scale has been undertaken
under funding from the Geothermal Division of DOE. Laboratory studies wherein water jets were
incorporated within a quadra-cone bit structure, donated by Gruner Williams, has shown (Table 2)
that there is a marked improvement, even at low thrust levels, when water jets were added to the
bit. It should be mentioned that even at these loads, chipping of the rock does occur, under
apparently similar conditions as would hold were higher bit weights applied.
The research has looked at several different factors in the application of jets to tri-cone bits.
The initial purpose of a drilling fluid is threefold. Primarily it is conventionally used to clear
cuttings from the hole and also to cool the bit, but it must also counter any downhole pressure
which may vent into a hole when a high pressure zone is breached thus acting to prevent a
blowout. There has been considerable research done in recent years in the role of high pressure jets
as a means of enhancing hole cleaning during the operation of the bit. Fullerton (5) has made a
study to determine the necessary hydraulic horsepower required to overcome bit floundering as a
function of bit weight and Amoco (6) has developed charts showing the effect on improving
drilling rate as the flow rate of the jets and the hydraulic horsepower is increased. However, as
hydraulic horsepower is improved, the normal effect of jet cleaning becomes minimized as the hole
becomes perfectly cleaned. This effect becomes more important the deeper one drills since the
pressure holding the chips down increases with depth. It is, therefore, important that a coherent,
properly directed jet be utilized for the cleaning purpose. This becomes even more important if the
jet pressure is increased further to the point where not only are the jets cleaning the rock surface
but are actually penetrating into the rock, thus preweakening it and improving further the
performance of the tri-cone bits.
In field research at Rolla, improvements in advance rates of up to a factor of eight have been
achieved where such a system is incorporated into a tri-cone bit and field reports from Exxon,
Gulf, and Shell have all shown that improvements in the field can be substantial in terms of bit life
and advance rate. Nevertheless, conventionally there have been many problems with the adaptation
of high pressure jets to tri-cone bits and it has only been within the last two years that a hole has
been drilled using high pressure economically advantageously. This was done by Shell in 1977 (7)
and a saving of approximately $140, 000 has been reported on the hole. However, in order to
achieve this improvement in performance it was necessary to extend the nozzles on the bit so that
the jets could most effectively work in the cutting zone at the rock surface. In a Similar move at
slightly lower pressure, engineers at Smith Tool (8) have shown that extending the nozzles on a
conventional rock bit will also improve performance and reduce drilling costs because of the more
effective cleaning which occurs underthe tri-cones. However, in both these circumstances whil,~
the use of extended nozzle bits has been shown to be of considerable advantage, the complexity of
modifying the hits to accept these extended nozzles has indicated some potential difficulty in
getting the size of the bits down below 9-5/8 in. (24.45 cm).
Smith Tool has recently developed a two-cone bit for use in soft formations where extended
nozzles can be brought closer to the surface and these nozzles have shown cost savings of between
$4 and $5 a foot at a bit diameter of 7 to 7-1/8 in. (17. 78 to 18. 1 cm) . There is, therefore,
considerable advantage from both the drilling rate and the cost standpoint where better bit
hydraulics are achieved but at the present time this is limited to hole diameters of 7-1/8 in. (18 cm)
and above and also requires that special bits be manufactured.
The recent research at the University of Missouri-Rolla has shown that a much better
performance can be achieved using conventional drilling bits if a change in the nozzle design of the
bit can be obtained. The improvement in performance which has been achieved with these nozzles
in air, is the difference between jets cutting at a distance of 200 nozzle diameters from the nozzle to
a distance of over 1,000 nozzle diameters. These performance improvements were achieved by
requiring contour matching between the nozzle and the supply. These contour-matched nozzles are
shown in Figure 3. The contrast nozzle lacking this contour matching is shown in Figure 4. In
addition a settling chamber was installed upstream of the nozzles to reduce flow turbulence levels
and pump pressure pulsations, both of which cause premature jet breakup. However, the biggest
improvement in jet coherence was achieved by markedly improving interior nozzle surface
finishes. By utilizing an electroforming manufacturing technique interior surface finishes of 8-10
micro inches (.25 m) were obtainable. The improvement due to surface finish above can be seen
when a 8 deg diverging dual orifice nozzle machined of brass and polished is compared with an
identical geometry nozzle manufactured by the electroforming process. This comparison is
illustrated in Figure 5 and Figure 6.
Figures 5 and 6 show the volume of material removed and the depth of penetration into Berea
sandstone from a stationary cutting test of 15 sec duration. Two dual orifice nozzles were used in
these tests both of which had the same internal configuration depicted by Figure 3. The surface
finish inside the nozzles were quite different with the electroformed nickel being very smooth in
comparison to the polished brass. Estimates of surface roughness heights were taken from
photomicrographs of the nozzle interiors and they revealed that the polished brass had local
maximum heights in the range of 4 x 10-3 mm to 2 x 10-2 mm while the electroformed nickel was
too small to be estimated by this method.
Figures 5 and 6 clearly show the improvement obtained in cutting performance by the
electroformed nozzle at large stand-off distances. Close to the nozzle, polished brass appears to be
superior but this condition would not be true if the nozzle were moving relative to the target
material. In this case fresh material is exposed to the jet and both the volume removed and depth of
penetration are greater from a coherent jet produced from a smooth nozzle.
The need for flow improvement from nozzles can be better understood if it is accepted that
conventional nozzle stand-offs can be up to 4 in. (10 cm) on a tri-cone assembly (9). Because the
submerged jets are more rapidly attenuated than those in air (Figure 7) it can be seen that
conventional flows may not cut at all beyond a distance of 3 in., (7.5 cm) where there is no back
pressure on the fluid, and even shorter distances as fluid back pressure increases. Thus the benefit
to be achieved by improving the fluid flow is not merely to improve jet cutting but may be
sufficient that the jets will cut the rock whereas, previously, the force of the fluid had been too
greatly attenuated.
It can also be pointed out that the slight increase in cutting ability of the submerged water jet
over the free air condition is probably due to increased cutting due to cavitation induced around the
jet flow. This cavitation is controlled by fluid back pressure and appears to be inhibited, at fluid
cutting pressure of 4,000 psi, (27.5 MPa) by back pressure of approximately 1,200 psi (8.27
MPa).
Lohn and Brent (8) have made tests with nozzles that required the flow direction to turn
abruptly through 90 deg just prior to the entrance of the nozzle. Their tests indicated that the flow
turning geometry and flow conditioning were extremely important in acquiring an adequate nozzle
performance after the turning process. Because current nozzle designs in drilling applications
require abrupt flow turning, incorporating the above results into future designs would improve jet
effectiveness. By incorporating these improved nozzle designs and flow turning techniques into
conventional tri-cone bits one could achieve the same benefits for these bits as are normally
achieved with extended nozzle bits only, and therefore, save a considerable amount of money.
In closing, there has been considerable discussion over the years on the relative merits of
optimizing the fluid impact force as opposed to optimizing fluid velocity of bit hydraulic
horsepower, in improving the way in which a jet assisted bit operates. In seeking to answer this
question, consideration must be given as to the purpose which the jets are to carry out.
Conventionally, this is a form of erosion or removal where the material is already either broken or
badly fractured by the tri-cone rotation. Under these circumstances, once the jets have, at the point
of impact, reached a certain critical velocity so that the fluid within the cracks of the rock is
pressurized by the impact of the jet to the point where the crack will grow or the fluid will create an
uplift force on the fragment, then there is no great advantage to increasing the velocity of the jet
much further since the primary purpose of the fluid has been achieved. It is more important in this
regard, if any additional power is available, to put this into increasing fluid flow. Increasing the
diameter of the jet within the zone is more likely to bring weakness planes, cracks, or grain
boundaries within the zone that the jet is cutting, and in this manner, to create a much larger area of
failure than would be the case if a smaller jet were used. The argument for using as large a jet
diameter as possible at a pressure above that critical to the first removal of the fragments of rock is
also enforced by the fact that the jets must penetrate through the surrounding fluid for several
inches conventionally before the impact zone is reached, as the jet passes through the highly
aggressive environment between the nozzle and the rock. Since mass flow rates increases as
diameter squared while surface area increases only as diameter then a larger diameter jet will not be
made ineffective as early as a smaller jet due to the viscous stripping process on the outer surface.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was partly funded under U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration
contract EY 76 S 02 2677.A002 with Mr. Cliff Carwile as the Technical Project Officer, Ms. June
Wiinikka and Ms. Cheryl Povalish acted as Contracting Officers. We are pleased to acknowledge
this assistance. The research was carried out with the assistance of Mr. J. Blaine, who made the
nozzles, Mr. L.J. Tyler, and Mr. K. Davis of the Rock Mechanics and Explosives Research
Center staff. We were also ably assisted by Mr. B. Larkin, Mr. L. Ashby, and Mr. J. Carter of the
St. Joe Research Department, and Mr. Alan Weakly, Director. This assistance and the help
furnished by St. Joe under Mr. Casteel, Vice President - Mining of St. Joe Minerals is gratefully
acknowledged.
REFERENCES
1. Summers, D.A., and Weakly, L.A., "The Effect of Stress on Water Jet Performance," Proc.
18th Symp. on Rock Mech., Lake Tahoe, Nev., May 1978.
2. Wyllie, R.J., Proc. 8th World Petroleum Congress, Moscow, pp. 403-411, 1972.
3. Maurer, W.C., Heilhecker, J.K., and Love, W.W., J. Pet. Tech., 7, pp. 851-859, 1973.
4. Pols, A.C., Proc. 1976 Tech. Conf, ASME, Mexico City, Mex., paper 76-Pet -50, 1976.
5. Fullerton, H.B., Jr., and Fullerton, H.B., IV, "Constant Energy Drilling System for Well
Programming," unpublished paper, 1973.
6. Allen, J.H., "How to Relate Bit Weight and Rotary Speed to Bit Hydraulic Horsepower,"
Drilling-DCW, May 1975.
7. Van Strijp, A.J.R., and Feenstra, R., Proc. 1977 Energy Tech. Conf., ASME, Houston, Tex.
8. Gamer, L.L., and Miller, D.J., "Rotary Drilling Bits," Preprint 76-Pet -93, SPE of AIME, Salt
Lake City, Utah, 1976.
9. Thompson, G.D., "Comments on Review of the Preliminary Draft of this paper.”
Fig. I . Original Nozzle Design Configuration
2(a). Hole drilled in destressed ground The hole 2 (b) . Hole drilled in stressed ground. The
diameter is approximately 2 in (5 cm). oval hole measures approximately
1.5 in (3.75 cm) across the horizontal diameter.
Fig. 3. Improved Nozzle Orientation Geometry Showing the Smooth Transition of Flow
Fig. 4. Original Nozzle Geometry Showing the Poor Transition and Flow
Fig. 5. Improvement In Jet Flow with Improved Geometry
Fig. 6. The Effect of Nozzle Geometry on Cutting Depth in Berea Sandstone
Fig. 7. Depth of Cut as a Function of Standoff Distance - at 50,000 psi in Red Granite (nozzle
diameter 0.2 mm). (after Cheung)
Table 1. Simulated Drilling Data (Hole Diameters are in Inches (Berea Sandstone) (1)
Table 2. The Effects on Drill Bit Load Where Jet Assisted is Applied to a 3-3/4" diameter Coring
Bit.